Nothing Like the First Time (10 page)

Everyone started singing happy birthday
and I joined in. I took hold of her arm and walked to meet Grey so she could blow out the candles.

“Blow out the candles and make a wish,” Grey said.

“I’ve already had my wish come true,” she said as she looked from Grey to me.

He smiled at me and we watched Lizzie blow out the candles. She took the knife Katrina offered and made the first cut in the cake.

“It’s red velvet!” Lizzie exclaimed happily “You remembered it’s my favorite!”

“I sure did, Lizzie.”

“Thank you. It’s so wonderful to have all my friends and family here—you two, most of all. I’m so grateful for the beautiful cake, Carly—thank you so very much.”

“You don’t need to keep saying thank you
, Lizzie—we all love you so much. Grey couldn’t find a cake good enough for his favorite aunt in the shops, so he asked me to put my skills to good use. It wasn’t an easy cake to make, but it was a lot of fun.”

“It tastes subli
me,” she said as she took a mouthful.

I blushed at the compliment and took the piece of cake Grey had cut for me.

We stayed late into the evening—everyone was dancing and singing along to the karaoke machine Katrina had set up. Lizzie even convinced Grey and me to sing a duet. We sang “I Don’t Know Much” by Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville.

As we tidied up, Grey kept looking across and smiling at me. I smiled back, knowing that this party had cemented our relationship—showing his family we were back together after all this time.

“Aunt Lizzie had such a great time,” Grey remarked, coming up behind me to wrap me in his warm embrace. He nuzzled my neck and I couldn’t help the hairs rising on the back of my neck along with the goose bumps that ran down my arms.

“I’m glad she did
.”

“She’s upstairs with my
mother doing something that’s supposedly
top secret
.”

“Oh really?” I asked, wondering what the two women could be cooking up.

“Yeah, I told Mother we’d finish tidying up then I’d drive you home.”

“Are you staying with me tonight?”

“If you’ll have me, Carls, I’d love to stay,” he said as he kissed across the top of my back.

“Mmm, definitely
,” I said, turning to kiss him. He kissed me softly and ran his hands up and down my back.

“This dress would look better off,” he
said against my mouth.

“Well
, if you’re a good boy, I’ll show you.”

“What happens if I’m a bad boy?”
He kissed his way down the side of my neck.

“Then I’ll definitely show you
.” I laughed.

We were interrupted by someone clearing their throat at the door. I looked up and blushed as I saw Katrina and Lizzie both
standing in the doorway.

“Well
, at least the young lovers are happy,” Lizzie remarked as she looked from us to Katrina.

“It seems they are,” Katrina replied as she began to help us finish clearing up.

“We are,” Grey said to the pair.

“That makes me happy!” Lizzie remarked. She smiled at us both and then began clearing the last of the plates.

After tidying up, Grey left the room to get our coats. A few minutes later, he returned and helped me into my coat.

“We’re going now, Mother.”

“Okay, darling. Will you be back tonight?”

“No, I’m staying over.”

“Okay, darling, see you tomorrow. Thank you for the cake, Carly.”

“You’re most welcome,”
I replied.

“Yes, thank you
, sweetheart,” Lizzie said as she came out of the kitchen. “It was simply delicious, but then your cakes always were the best.”

“Thank you
.” I felt the blush color my cheeks.

“Safe drive home,” Lizzie said as she kissed us goodbye
. “See you soon, I hope, Carly.”

“Definitely,” I said with a smile. I had forgotten just how much I had loved Katrina and Lizzie.

We got into the car and the ladies waved goodbye.

“I had so much fun tonight,” I said to Grey with a smile.

“So did I,” he replied with a smile of his own—it was that secret kind of smile he reserved for our moments alone.

“I’m so glad I came. Lizzie loved the cake, the karaoke was fun—even if I did have to sing.”

“Hey! I sang too, remember!”

“I know, but you have a great voice.”

“As do you.”

“Thank you.”

We drove along in relative quiet except for the radio in the background. It was still a little snowy from Christmas, so Grey was driving carefully, sticking to the speed limit, if not slower.

I was happy that we’d had such a good night, but I was also glad that it was over—I was tired and would be happy to get to bed, not that I envisioned much sleep being had.

Before I knew what was happening, Grey was trying to regain the steering wheel—it seemed we had hit a patch of black ice.

“Shit! Carly, hold on tight, the tires don’t seem to be gripping anything!” was the last thing I heard before being thrown forward as the car hit something.

***

I woke up with a foggy head. Where was I? What had happened? I looked around and tried to get my bearings
, but couldn’t see very far in front of me—my eyes were heavy and my vision fuzzy.

The last thing I remembered was driving home with Grey… we’d hit a patch of ice… oh my god, we’d hit something!

As my vision cleared slightly, I could make out the airbag that had deployed in front of me. I looked over at Grey and my heart lurched. My mind refused to accept what my eyes were seeing—he was hunched over the steering wheel, his airbag had deployed but it looked like something was wrong with it.

I frantically tried to undo my seatbelt, calling Grey’s name over and over—no respons
e. He had a cut on his head, there was blood everywhere. I finally managed to get my seatbelt loose and winced at the pain as I reached over for Grey—I felt his neck and thanked God there was a pulse to be felt. I tried calling his name but still there was no response. I took off my jacket and held it to the gash on his head.

I reached for my
purse in the foot well of the car—I searched frantically for my mobile phone but couldn’t find it. I tried my car door and thankfully, it opened without a problem. I slowly got out of the car—it hurt to move too much or too quickly. I stood outside and looked around for a house but we were on the stretch of road between the Sterlings’ home and mine that didn’t have houses—there was nothing except fields. I felt like screaming but just breathing was hurting me enough as it was. I hoped a car would pass by soon but for now, I had to get to Grey’s side of the car and see if the door could be opened.

The door was crushed against a ce
ment median barrier. I couldn’t open it. A frustrated scream escaped my throat, leaving my chest in so much pain. I walked back to my side of the car as carefully as I could.

I looked around the inside of the car for my phone—I didn’t want to hurt Grey by looking around for his.

Finally, I located my phone lodged under my seat and called the emergency services. I gave them the details of the crash and where we were. I told them that Grey was hurt badly and they said that police and an ambulance would attend the scene as soon as they could—as far as I was concerned that wasn’t fast enough. Grey seemed to be bleeding an awful lot as I sat holding my jacket to stem the flow of blood. I couldn’t do much more for him, so I sat and took his hand in mine.

“They’ll be here soon
, sweetheart, just hang in there.” I prayed he could hear me.

What felt like an eternity later—but in reality
probably wasn’t very long—sirens could be heard in the still night air. I saw the ambulance in the distance and was thankful that someone would be able to do something to help Grey.

“What happened here
, Miss?” a police officer asked as he opened my car door.

“I don’t know. We were driving and all of a sudden Grey couldn’t regain control of the steering wheel—I think we hit a patch of black ice or something. I remember Grey saying to hold tight, but then nothing until I woke up next to him.”

I saw the paramedic assessing the situation on Grey’s side of the vehicle.

“We’re going to need to cut him out of the car
,” I heard someone say.

“Okay
, Miss, and what did you see when you woke up?” the policeman continued.

“Look
, are these questions really necessary right now? All I want is to get Grey to the hospital and then I’ll answer all the questions you like!”

“Sorry
, Miss, I’m just trying to assess what happened to better help the paramedics,” he said in a gentler tone.

“Oh. Umm… I woke up, my head was fuzzy and I couldn’t remember anything. When my vision cleared, I saw Grey slumped over
with a cut on his head—it looked to me like his airbag didn’t deploy properly.”

“Okay
, and did you move him at any point?”

“No. I didn’t want to in case he has injuries I’m not aware of. I took
my jacket and applied it the head wound to slow the bleeding then took hold of his hand, but that was all.”

“Okay,” he said and then stood to talk to the paramedic.

I looked over at Grey, still unconscious and bleeding. My heart lurched again and I barely had time to get out of the car before throwing up. The policeman came and sat with me while they waited for a second ambulance to turn up.

“I’m not going anywhere until Grey is moved
,” I said to the paramedic as she came up to my side of the car.

“Okay
, Miss, but can you at least sit in the back of the ambulance for me?” she asked kindly.

“Can everybody stop calling me Miss? My name is Carly.”

“Sorry, Carly. Please, just come with me—I promise we won’t leave until your boyfriend is moved. They have to cut him out of the car now and it would be better if you weren’t sitting here. I can take a look at that cut on your head, too.”

I followed her to the waiting ambulance. I saw that a fire engine was now on the scene and a fire crew were getting the equipment ready to cut Grey from the car.

I took a seat in the back of the ambulance but made the paramedic leave the door open. She came to sit next to me and began cleaning the cut I didn’t know I had on my head.

“You know
, Carly, this is quite deep, it’ll need stitches. I’ll bandage it up for now, then I’ll need to give you a check over everywhere else.”

“
Okay,” I mumbled.

She bandaged my head then asked me to lift up my top so she could inspect me.

“It looks like you’ll have a seat belt bruise across your torso. Do you mind if I touch you to assess anything internal?”

“Go ahead.”

She probed around my ribs and abdomen, causing me to wince and moan in pain.

“Okay
, Carly, I think you could have a couple of cracked ribs.”

“I don’t care, I just want to know how Grey is.”

“I’ll go and find out if you like—but only if you promise not to move,” she said kindly.

“I won’t, just go to him.”

A couple of minutes later, the cutting gear began to make loud noises as the firemen began to cut into Grey’s car. I began to cry and once I started, I couldn’t stop. I sat and sobbed as the paramedic held my hand. She had closed the back door of the ambulance while they cut him out so I didn’t have to see it happening.

“I can’t lose him,” I sobbed.

“It’s okay, Carly, just take some deep breaths. They’re cutting him out so that we can get him to the hospital as quickly as possible to assess what’s wrong with him.”

“He can’t die. That’s the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

The paramedic soothed me and rubbed my back while I cried more than I had in a very long time.

Suddenly, there was silence in the air. She got out of the ambulance to see what was happening.
As she got out, I saw them putting a spinal board behind Grey—he already had a neck brace on, they must have done that before cutting into the car. I watched them pull Grey out of the car and I started crying even more. He couldn’t die, not now—we’d been apart for ten years and had only had moments back together. I wanted to grow old and grey together.

“He’s ready to be taken to hospital now
, Carly. Will you let us take you, too?” the paramedic asked as she climbed back into the ambulance with me.

“Yes. Is he okay, what’s happening?”

“We don’t know much except he came round and was in lots of pain—the paramedic gave him an injection to help with the pain. We won’t really know more until we get back to the hospital.”

“Then let’s go.”